


System Error

by TrishaCollins



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien tech babble, Gen, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 03:00:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15654381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrishaCollins/pseuds/TrishaCollins
Summary: When working with alien tech that you don't completely understand, problems do occur. Spoilers for season 7.





	System Error

“Veronica!” 

She didn’t even look up from her screen. “James.” 

“Look. You can’t-“ He made a few helpless hand gestures. “I don’t-what are you even doing?”

“Uploading pictures.” She finished, then swiveled in her chair, looking at him. 

Essentially, she was Holt’s secretary. Veronica Espinoza, who had a brother in space doing…whatever he was doing. Unofficially she was doing everything short of Sanda’s laundry. 

“You can’t just show up to testing like that.” He finally grumbled, flopping into a chair. “It startles Lief, she needs to have some idea of the components before we start an op.”

Veronica blinked. “What?”

“Lief’s….” He hesitated, trying to figure out a way to explain it that wouldn’t insult Lief. He valued her skills, she was an ace in the air. But she tended to shut down and need time to reboot – he found it easier to think of her as a computer – if an unpredictable element showed up before an op. “Look. My team is my team, and I know Holt wants you babysitting us, but you can’t just show up whenever you please with no prep. Delta doesn’t like anything to mess with the-“ He snapped his jaw shut.

“Delta, huh? You’re Alpha, Kinkade is Bravo, and Rezavi is Charlie.” Veronica leaned back, looking curious. 

Officially, the MFEs didn’t have names. They had call signs, but nothing more. “That’s nothing for you to worry about.” He finally managed. 

“Those are the names you use for each other.” Veronica prompted.

“Wrong.” He grumbled, and had to focus or he’d start something. 

“What are the names then? The ships?” 

He grimaced, and she sat up slightly. “You named the ships.”

“Holt scrawled his name all over the big one.” He muttered out of the side of his mouth. 

“So you named the MFE’s? I mean, they’ve changed bodies several times, haven’t’ they?” 

“The brains are the same.” He scowled. “That’s not what I’m here about.”

“’The brains’” She echoed, leaning forward. “Did you tell Sam?”

He leaned back away from her. “He knows what he needs to.”

“James. Are they talking to you?” She sounded concern. “This is alien tech, we’ve never-“

“Leave it alone.” He was on his feet, jaw clicking, staring down at her. 

Both of her eyebrows were up now, he wasn’t playing this off now. He just remembered her sitting in Delta’s copilot seat, and how odd it had felt, and how unnatural it was. 

He hadn’t liked it. Lief had been uneasy. The op had been completed successfully, but everything about it had felt wrong. “You think too loud.”

“I think too loud?” 

The fact that she kept repeating everything he said was sawing at the last nerve. He needed to talk to Sam about the new housing, Alpha hated it. He hated it. It felt wrong, like it was interfering with his calm. 

“You think too loud in the housing.” He said the words, but they didn’t come out coherently. She had come along on ops before, and it had never bothered him. He even liked her. She was better than the brass, smart, sarcastic, honest, and fair with his team. He wasn’t sure why today she was the problem, except nobody else ever tried to fly with them. Nobody else could keep up with them. 

“James?” Veronica looked even more concerned, taking a step forward to touch him.

He evaded her, or he tried to, but everything suddenly went inside out and wrong and he felt the blood rush out of his head. 

He came to on the floor with Veronica crouched near his head, talking on the radio and stroking his hair. “Stay down, James.” 

He tried to get up anyway, but his muscles were liquid, and his body wasn’t responding. 

“Stay down.” She repeated. 

“Need…ship.” He slurred.

“You do not need your ship, you need rest. When did you eat last? Sam, you should check on the other three too. Send medical to my location. He was saying something about the ships before he collapsed. I went with them this morning.” Veronica’s voice was sharp, but her tone was calm. 

He couldn’t remember. He tried to lift his head, but he couldn’t, everything was wrong and he needed his crew and his ship.

Medical arrived and he tried not to groan at them, but he couldn’t even fight as they lifted him into the gurney. 

“I think the new interface is bad, Sam. He was rambling about a lot. I’ve flown with them before, but he was saying I was too loud.” Veronica was walking next to his bed, hand on his shoulder. 

He preferred it to medical touching him. “Others?”

“They’re checking, James.” 

Lief had been out of sorts when he’d left, angry, to confront Veronica. He needed the fighter. He needed his fighter. He needed to be inside Alpha’s cockpit. That would make it better. 

“His heart rate is all over the place, spiking. I’m sedating him before he has a heart attack.”

“N-“ He started, but the needle was in his vein before he could protest more than that. 

*~* 

He was breathing, which felt like it took all of the energy he had. 

“James?” Sam leaned over him, concerned, worried. “How are you feeling?”

“Drugged.” He squinted, focusing. “What happened?”

“The new housing was malfunctioning and the four of you were getting bleed over. We’ve switched back to the original housing. Are you still feeling erratic?”

“the others?” He mumbled. 

“Sleeping. Lief was having an issue at first, couldn’t stop spitting out prime numbers, but once she was sedated she seemed to settle.” 

“Nyh.” He agreed, letting go of his concern for his team. “Veronica?”

“Worried, but she didn’t want to force contact when we weren’t sure how you would wake up. Are the ships…talking to you?” Sam’s voice was cautious. 

“Not….not talking. Just….feelings. Images, sometimes, or….like…awareness. I know where the others are.” He always knew where the others were in the sky. 

"How long has this been going on?" Sam settled on the edge of the bed, looking concerned. 

He closed his eyes instead of look at his superior. He had no idea. It felt like it had always been there, that awareness. He had thought the awareness was part of the design. Out of the sims. Almost as soon as they stepped out of the sims. “Long time.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Because it might have been taken away, his wings, the sky, and the connection with the others. “I…I thought it was what you wanted.”

“James.” Sam’s voice was stern. “Always tell me. I want to help.”

He nodded, feeling stupid and childish. 

Sam gave his shoulders a squeeze. “And if any of my meddling with the housing reacts like this, tell me right away.”

“I will. I won’t risk my team.” 

“And that is what I want.” Sam nodded, firm. “You are _all_ too important to risk.”

He really hoped that included the prototypes.


End file.
